Jesse Helms Operatives Working for Bush's Campaign

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A lot of people remember the Hunt-Helms NC senate race in 1984. It was a milestone in negative campaigning. Republican senator Jesse Helms threw dirt at his Democratic opponent, and when Jim Hunt threw some back, the press (in typical mealy-mouthed fashion) complained that both sides were throwing dirt.

It's no coincidence that Bush campaigns work the same way. A lot of campaign strategists who worked for Jesse Helms now work for George W. Bush. They also worked for Elizabeth Dole during her NC senatorial campaign in 2002, which used the same type of lying push-polls used against McCain and Cleland in that election year.

Jesse Helms got his start as a right-wing radio announcer in the 1960s - sort of a proto-Rush Limbaugh. Jesse's issues were comm'inism and hating black people. He was elected to the senate on Nixon's coattails and never lost again. His campaign operatives drank from the same poisonous well as Nixon's CREEP and the Bush family.

Read these two articles to see the many connections between Jesse then and W now. This is what Kerry is up against.

http://www.newsobserver.com/print/sunday/front/story/1652071p-7880346c.html

[yardwork]

1. Longer article about the Hunt-Helms campaign here

Readers will recognize many of the same dirty tricks and foul tactics being used against Kerry now.

http://www.newsobserver.com/print/sunday/front/story/1652071p-7880343c.html

P.S. Adolph Coors was a huge financial supporter of Helms.